A carefully curated library of the world's greatest literature, Dover Thrift Editions are the most affordable choice for today's readers. The series offers a vast selection of complete and unabridged titles, each a classic work of fiction, nonfiction, poetry or drama. This original collection gathers a remarkably diverse body of literature about John Brown, the strident antislavery leader from the pre-Civil War United States. Dissatisfied with the pacifist nature of the abolitionist movement. Brown believed that violence was necessary. He led skirmishes against supporters of slavery, including a raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859, which is often viewed as a prelude to the Civil War. Although he did not live to see the end of slavery, his actions helped motivate opponents of slavery to take a more aggressive stance. A John Brown Reader begins with a selection of letters by the abolitionist himself in Part 1, Part 2 explores his legacy in literature and his impact on contemporaries, with addresses by Frederick Douglass, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau as well as poems by Louisa May Alcott, Herman Melville, and others.

Part 3 features excerpts from W. E. B. Du Bois's biography, John Brown. Book jacket.